The invention relates to a method and an oxy-fuel oven for melting a vitrifiable material and for obtaining molten glass.
The invention notably relates to a melting oven having a capacity or output less than or equal to 400 tonnes of molten glass a day. Such melting ovens are for example used in the production of hollow glassware or glass tableware where they feed forming machines with molten glass.
The invention relates more particularly to such a melting oven called a “flame oven”. In a flame oven, at least part of the melting energy is provided by at least one flame in the melting chamber, said at least one flame being produced by means of a burner.
In order to reduce polluting emissions, such as NOx, and in order to reduce the energy consumption of flame melting ovens, it is possible to replace air as the oxidant for combustion by an oxygen-rich gas. Such ovens are called oxy-fuel flame ovens. Combustion by means of an oxygen-rich gas is called oxy-combustion and burners operating with an oxygen-rich gas as oxidant are called oxy-burners.
In oxy-combustion ovens, the configuration of the burners is generally made up of a number of burners placed on part of the length of the oven and directed perpendicularly to the axis of the oven/combustion chamber. The power of each of the burners is individually adjusted, or adjusted by group of burners, in order to establish the desired thermal profile in the oven. The total power of the burners is adjusted according to the oven's output.
Other burner configurations have been proposed.
Melting ovens thus exist called “loop ovens” in which (1) the configuration of the burners consists of a very small number of burners (typically one or two) directed substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the oven and (2) the opening or openings for discharging fumes are positioned so as to create one or more flames in the form of a loop.